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US risks losing artificial intelligence arms race to China and Russia

More than 60 years after a space race rivalry with the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of ballistic missile development, the US is facing another "Sputnik moment" amid a rapidly escalating international competition over artificial intelligence, according to former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work.

The idea that rapid advances in artificial intelligence will define the next generation of warfare -- a concept known as the "Third Offset Strategy" -- was first articulated by former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in 2014.Possible AI applications for the military include: creating more nimble systems, possibly at lower cost; developing more effective training systems; software that processes mountains of data from surveillance systems or for "pattern-of-life" surveillance; improved facial recognition capabilities; war games support and automated combat in so-called manned-unmanned operations, according to a September report from the RAND Corporation.